


old proverbs

by only_lovers_left_in_genosha



Category: Bleach
Genre: Drabble, F/F, Femslash, idk what this is rly but it will continue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-04 13:20:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4139079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/only_lovers_left_in_genosha/pseuds/only_lovers_left_in_genosha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>short story of Sui feng and yoruichi, based on old proverbs</p>
            </blockquote>





	old proverbs

**Author's Note:**

> i'm planning to continue this if it gets a good response, but because i'm chronically ill, i cant do that if this bears no fruit!
> 
> this will be a collection of short drabbles based of Sui Feng's use of old chinese proverbs
> 
> "哭" (ku1) which means cry, is a homonym for "苦" (ku3) meaning bitterness. see the end notes for another explanation for the latter!

She approached me; I was nibbling ginseng. Lethargy had seized me once again and so I turned to my own traditional medicines for aid. What point was there to go to the 4th division over such a trifle, especially when self-medication was even easier done than said?

  
“How can you eat that?” She laughed, the sunlight beaming down on her in spare patches, from where it had burrowed past the thin canopy. The splotches of brightness illuminated where they graced her, deep ochre skin glowing like a gift to the world. It was moments like this, not the dramatism of clichéd star-struck lovers, that made me realized how much I loved her.

  
“It’s so bitter, I can’t stand it!” she stuck out her tongue and gave a sharp laugh to emphasize to me that she wasn’t making any form of a personal jab.

  
To me, she was the personification of warmth itself. She put the sun to shame. One was a fragile star, sputtering in its uncertain levitation in a dark and empty void, either oppressive in its heat or fallible. But she, she was the hands-on-hips stance that dared to challenge the dawn. Her heat held me at night as I’d lie next to her, and her smiles (so carelessly thrown out, like flinging pearls back out to sea) massaged my core with a soft broil.  
I gave a suggestion of a smile to return the courtesy she gave me.

  
“Ah, my lady, I am used to swallowing bitterness.”

  
She quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, really? You must take that a lot!”

  
It was unfair of me, to use the Chinese expression to respond to my Japanese partner. But it was better of her not to know, I supposed. It was cryptic, to let out my resent in old expressions and proverbs, but sometimes I felt like all the bitter I had eaten had accumulated in me. As if it was a slow poisoning, or as if I was not a person, but a container to hold all these bad memories and ill will. And just like one must release the stopper of brewed rice wine to release the gas (lest the bottle crack), so too must I regurgitate a shard of this bitterness now and again.

  
Lest I crack.

  
I giggled a bit.

  
“My apologies my lady, I do not take it often. Ginseng like this, with slices of the root is worth more than its weight in gold, and that isn’t even a metaphor.” I leaned against her, reveling in the warmth of her that I would always yearn. “ I meant something else, an expression I guess you could say.”

  
“My, my! Sui Feng, I’d never guess you to be the type to use all these fancy proverbs and whatnot!” She pinched my cheek. “and quit calling me ‘your lady’ already!”  
I stole a quick kiss.

  
“Then I am pleased, Yourichi, that I am still able to surprise you after all these years.”

  
“Silly,” she quipped, lacing her arms around my waist.

  
“Indeed, Yourichi.”

**Author's Note:**

> "soifon" is the romanized japanese version of Sui-Feng's name, which is actually 砕蜂. "砕" (sui4) means to break or smash and "蜂" (feng1) means wasp or hornet
> 
> “吃苦” means literally "eat bitter" and is an old chinese saying that means to bear with bad situations without saying anything about it, basically similar to the english term "grit your teeth and bear with it"


End file.
